Last year we took you to the Wat Thai Buddhist Temple in the Valley, where a row of food vendors serve up cheap and tasty grinds. Unfortunately, the food court is now threatened, and may have already even served its last dish.
The Militant Angeleno headed to the Wat Thai this weekend to do some research -- and indeed, it looks like the food court is in trouble. He snapped this shot:
and learned, via one of his "reputable operatives in the Thai community," that several factors are working against the food court:
First, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has recently made their annual inspection and will shut down the food court due to its findings. But the Militant's operative said such closures are normally only temporary...
The second issue was general complaints from the neighborhood regarding noise, traffic and loitering, which is interesting since Van Noord Ave., the residential cul-de-sac directly behind the temple, is home to not only temple members, but most of the temple's monks. The Militant's operative said that Wat Thai has worked hard to address the complaints of the neighborhood...
The third issue was not directly related to the food court, but did make P.R. matters much worse for the temple, obviously attributed to bad timing. The Militant's operative also mentioned that the LAPD is currently investigating allegations by children at the temple of sexual abuse directed at a male volunteer (none of the temple's monks were named), who is a married undocumented immigrant (and could thusly face deportation regardless of whether the charges stand or not).
The Militant said it sounded like last weekend's food court may have been the last for a while... here's hoping it makes a return as these issues are sorted out.
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